latest happenings

Official Welcome

Terry extends a warm welcome to all visitors to his homepage
and web domain. Special thanks to Wolfgang Bylsma at
Anima Creative for
the page design and other invaluable assistance with the creation and maintenance of this site.

The Complete Rynosseros due from PS Publishing in early 2020

Preparations are well under way by PS Publishing in the UK and its affiliate PS Australia to release The Complete Rynosseros in early 2020, first as a deluxe three-volume slipcased hard-cover edition, then in paperback. All forty-five Tom stories (two previously uncollected and one brand new) will be available at last, featuring 398k of fiction (24k never included in the four original Tom Rynosseros collections), plus Appendices and a further 36k of Story Notes produced exclusively for this edition. For those new to the saga, the Australian SF Reader in October 2007 called this: “The best and most ambitious Australian science fiction series ever written, and one of the best, ever, period.” Nick Stathopoulos is producing brand-new artwork for the project.

"Terry Dowling: Poet of Shadows" in Firsts, September/October 2019

The lead article in the September/October issue of Firsts magazine in the US is a major piece on Terry's dark fantasy by American scholar and book collector Boyd White. In White's view, it's "a singularly distinct body of work that is one of the most remarkable achievements in contemporary fantastic fiction."

The Night Shop published by Cemetery Dance, October 2017

Terry’s latest collection, The Night Shop: Tales for the Lonely Hours, was published by Cemetery Dance Publications in the US as a signed limited edition hardcover in October 2017, with a wonderfully atmospheric cover and interiors by Nick Stathopoulos. It features eighteen of Terry’s dark fantasy and horror stories in a companion volume to his International Horror Guild Award-winning Basic Black from 2006, and includes three new tales of appropriate fear: “No Nets Can Catch,” “Still Life, With Stranging Glass” and “The Other Séance at Kenmyre.” The collection has a fine introduction by Danel Olson and a splendid endorsement from Ellen Datlow. An e-book edition is also available.

Cemetery Dance Select: Terry Dowling available

The Cemetery Dance Select series presents authors’-choice mini-collections in both print and e-book formats. Featured writers have chosen short fiction from their award-winners, stories considered their best or having the most impact on their careers, even neglected favourites they felt deserved a second look. Each single-author title has an Afterword giving the reasoning behind the stories and insights into their creation. Terry’s choices are: “The Daemon Street Ghost-Trap,” “The Saltimbanques,” “Stitch” and “One Thing About the Night.” The deluxe signed hardcover can be obtained direct from the publisher at www.cemeterydance.com

"The Tryal Attract" in The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea

Terry’s spooky nautical tale “The Tryal Attract” can be found in Ellen Datlow’s 2018 anthology The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea from Night Shade Books. It concerns a man who spends a night with a whispering skull and learns a terrible secret about one of Australia’s earliest maritime tragedies.

"The Unwrapping" in Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories

Terry's story "The Unwrapping" appears in Ellen Datlow's Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, from Simon & Schuster's Saga Press imprint. It concerns a rather special mummy unwrapping held near one of Sydney's northern beaches. The story has been called "a delightful 'what if?'" by Locus magazine.

“The Madlock Chair” in Aurealis 100

To help celebrate its 100th issue in 2017, Aurealis magazine featured Terry’s SF story “The Madlock Chair,” a follow-up to his acclaimed 2003 tale “Flashmen.” Editor Dirk Strasser found this latest instalment to be “mind-blowingly original.”.

“Come Home” in Extrasolar

“Midnight in the Graffiti Tunnel” in Dreaming in the Dark

Another of Terry's tales of appropriate fear, "Midnight in the Graffiti Tunnel," appears in Jack Dann's 2016 anthology Dreaming in the Dark, the debut title from the new PS Australia imprint.

“The Shaddowes Box” in The Mammoth Book of the Mummy

Terry’s 2011 “wonderfully ghoulish” steampunk mummy story “The Shaddowwes Box” appears in Paula Guran’s 2017 anthology The Mammoth Book of the Mummy, published by both Robinson in the UK and Prime Books in the US.

“Jenny Come to Play” in The Monstrous

Terry’s chilling 1997 Aurealis Award-winning story “Jenny Come to Play” can be found in Ellen Datlow's anthology The Monstrous from Tachyon Publications. It is one of Terry's most reprinted stories.

“Corpse Rose” in Nightmare Carnival

Terry's distinctly Aussie take on the dark carnival story, "Corpse Rose," features in Ellen Datlow's acclaimed theme anthology Nightmare Carnival, published by Dark Horse Books in October 2014. It was also picked for The Year's Best Australian Fantasy & Horror 2014, edited by Liz Gryzb and Talie Helene, Ticonderoga Publications, 2015.

“The Four Darks” in Fearful Symmetries

A new Blackwater Days Dan Truswell story "The Four Darks" can be found in Fearful Symmetries, Ellen Datlow’s kickstarter anthology of all-original terror and supernatural fiction from ChiZine Publications, published in May 2014. The story has also been translated into French for its appearance as “Les quatre ombres” in Ténèbres 2016, May 2016, edited by Benoît Domis.

“Intervention at Quissirio Landing” in Cosmos

Terry’s “Intervention at Quissirio Landing” appears in Issue 53 of Cosmos magazine for October/November 2013, and may well prove to be a contender for the ultimate terraforming Mars story.

“The Sleepover” in Exotic Gothic 5

Terry delivers a riff on one the best-loved horror themes with "The Sleepover" in Exotic Gothic 5, edited by Danel Olson, available from PS Publishing in the UK. It also appears in The Year's Best Australian Fantasy & Horror 2013, edited by Liz Gryzb and Talie Helene, Ticonderoga Publications, 2014. The story notes describe it as a tale of “family secrets, sinister schemes, rampant paraphilia and darkest purpose, complete with a dash of premature burial for good measure.”

“Nightside
Eye” in Three Year's Bests!

Terry’s disturbing Hydro-Majestic tale "Nightside Eye" appears in three Year’s Bests – Stephen Jones’s Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 24, Paula Guran’s Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2013, and in Liz Grzyb and Talie Helene’s The Year's Best Australian Fantasy & Horror 2012. An excellent reading of the story by Graeme Dunlop as Pseudopod-387 can be found at http://pseudopod.org/2014/05/22/pseudopod-387-nightside-eye/

"Mariners' Round" in The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Five

Terry’s haunted merry-go-round story "Mariners' Round" from Exotic Gothic 4 appears in Ellen Datlow’s The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Five from Night Shade Books, and features an opening based on an actual event in the author’s teen years growing up in Sydney.. It can also be found in Nightmare! (Issue 71), August 2018, http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/mariners-round/

"Dancing with Scheherazade” in Parabolas of Science Fiction

Terry’s intriguing and revealing examination of his writing process, "Dancing with Scheherazade: Some Reflections in the Djinni’s Glass," can be found in Parabolas of Science Fiction, edited by Brian Attebery and Veronica Hollinger, published in the US by Wesleyan University Press in 2013. It focuses largely on the Tom Rynosseros series.

International Praise for TD in Cemetery Dance #66

International praise for Terry’s special brand of
dark fantasy continues in Cemetery Dance #66, which calls him
“Australia’s most acclaimed writer of the dark fantastic.” (43) and
“Australia’s Premier Writer of the Imagination.” (28)

Clowns
at Midnight in 21st Century Gothic: Great Gothic Novels Since
2000

Terry’s 2010 debut novel has received a major
entry in 21st Century Gothic: Great Gothic Novels Since 2000,
edited by Danel Olson: Leigh Blackmore’s insightful and intelligent
essay, “Marvels and Horrors: Terry Dowling’s Clowns at Midnight.”

Clowns at Midnight available from PS Publishing

Terry’s disquieting debut novel Clowns at
Midnight appeared from PS Publishing in October 2010 and
concerns family secrets in present-day Australia, ancient
rituals and a very special kind of clown. It can be ordered in
either hard-copy or e-book format at
http://www.pspublishing.co.uk/index.asp?function=search

“With its acute observations of a parched
landscape, its blending of the everyday and the forces of myth,
Clowns at Midnight is an exceptional work that bears comparison
to John Fowles's The Magus.”
- The Guardian, October 2010

“Make no mistake about it: this
is smart person's horror, an unerringly rich and intelligent account
that encompasses clown-phobia and the true origins of western
religion.”
- Fright Site Reviews and Commentary 18 October 2010
http://www.fright.com/edge/ClownsAtMidnight.htm

“If you wish to fall into another
world for a time—of shifting masks, beautiful bodies and terrible
fears, of mystic philosophy and living labyrinths (with the human
heart at their centre)—you have found your book…Mr. Dowling’s
Clowns at Midnight is the stuff of magic.”
- Danel Olson, editor of Exotic Gothic I, II, III, and
21st Century Gothic: Great Gothic Novels Since 2000

“Clowns at Midnight is a
masterpiece of suspense – a suspense that is multiplied, rendered
all the more terrifying, by the brilliantly constructed ambiguity of
the plot. This is the territory of John Fowles’s great novels,
The Magus and A Maggot: a psychological landscape in
which the reliability of perception, of memory, and of narration is
interrogated to its uttermost limits. And Terry Dowling’s fine prose
is quite the equal of Fowles’s in the bargain.”
- Nick Gevers, editor of Postscripts, Extraordinary Engines,
Other Earths, Infinity Plus

“Clowns at Midnight plays
with a grand spectrum of emotions…At novel length, Dowling can work
his peculiar magics in an almost symphonic form. The result is a
memorable addition to the Tales of Appropriate Fear.”
- Faren Miller, Locus, August 2010 (20)

“Suffice to say, readers familiar
with other dark fantasies concerned with the survival of ancient
traditions and beliefs into the present – John Fowles’ The Magus,
Thomas Tryson’s Harvest Home, Donna Tarrt’s The Secret
History, Graham Joyce’s The House of Lost Dreams – will
have an inkling of where Dowling is leading them. Clowns at
Midnight deserves to be mentioned in the company of these superb
tales not because it echoes them but because it takes the premise
underlying them all in a refreshingly original direction.”
- Stefan Dziemianowicz, Locus, October 2010 (27)

Amberjack: Tales of Fear and Wonder from Subterranean
Press

Terry’s collection Amberjack: Tales of Fear and
Wonder appeared from Subterranean Press in June 2010 and earned a
starred review in Publishers Weekly. It features an Introduction by
long-time Dowling friend Jack Vance and includes such acclaimed
stories as "The Lagan Fishers," "Flashmen," "Toother" and "The Suits
at Auderlene" as well as Terry’s major 2009 Tom Rynosseros adventure
"The Library."

Amberjack: Tales of Fear & Wonder
Terry Dowling, Subterranean (www.subterraneanpress.com),
$40 (368p) ISBN 978-1-59606-293-1
“Dowling's newest collection…highlights his rich and complex
sideways storytelling with 12 stories that run the speculative
fiction gamut. ‘The Magikkers’ gently explores the lives of the
fortunate few who possess a small spark of magic in a mundane world.
In ‘Flashmen,’ competing rescue teams risk annihilation in a savage
landscape. ‘Toother’ and ‘The Suits at Auderlene’ are creepy and
cruel, but ‘Truth Window,’ set in the universe of the Wormwood story
cycle, finds humanity shining even in slavery. Dowling's terse and
enigmatic style is subtle and brain stretching, enticing readers
with fully realized worlds that clearly extend far beyond each
story's boundaries. Insightful afterwords complete the sensation of
being transported someplace truly alien by Dowling's intelligent and
thoughtful work.” (Starred Review)
- Publishers Weekly, July 2010.

“Two Steps Along the Road” in Best New Horror 21 and Lethal Legends

As well as being chosen by editor Stephen Jones for The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 21 in 2010, Terry’s chilling 2009 Vietnam ghost story “Two Steps Along the Road” is featured with stories by Michael Kelly, Simon Kurt Unsworth and Mark Valentine in the special e-book title: Lethal Legends: Four Short Stories.

“Stitch” in Darkness: Two Decades of Modern Horror / TD
Most Chosen Author!

In her preface to Terry’s story “Stitch” in the
major US horror retrospective Darkness: Two Decades of Modern
Horror, editor Ellen Datlow says: “I fell in love with [Terry’s]
consistently disturbing supernatural and psychological horror
fiction. In fact, more of his horror stories appeared in The
Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror during its twenty-one year run
than any other writer.”

“The Maze Man” in Best of the Best

Acclaimed Australian editor Barry Oakley chose
"The Maze Man" for Best of the Best, his 2009 anthology from
The Five Mile Press featuring Oakley’s top picks from his six
previous Five Mile anthologies.

“Toother” in four Year’s Bests!

Terry’s story “Toother” was selected for four
Year’s Best collections: by Stefan R. Dziemianowicz for Horror: The
Best of the Year 2008, by Bill Congreve and Michelle Marquardt for
Year’s Best Australian Science Fiction & Fantasy 4, and by Ellen Datlow for the 2008 edition of
The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror 20.
It is Terry’s tenth appearance in the important YBFH annual
anthology series. Previous selections have been: “The Daemon Street
Ghost-Trap,” “Scaring the Train,” “Beckoning Nightframe,” “Jenny
Come to Play,” “Basic Black,” “The Saltimbanques,” “Stitch,”
“Clownette” and “La Profonde.” The story has also appeared in the
inaugural volume of Award Winning Australian Writing 2008, edited by
David Tenenbaum, and was called “The gem of the collection” by the
Sydney Morning Herald, 11 October 2008.

“Toother” Wins 2007 Australian Shadows Award

Terry’s 2007 story “Toother” from Eclipse One:
New Fantasy and Science Fiction, edited by Jonathan Strahan, won the
Australian Shadows Award for Best Short Story in April 2008. In the
words of Guest Judge Richard Harland: “Terry Dowling’s story is a
conscious extension of Poe’s ‘Berenice’…whilst also drawing on some
fascinating research into a very murky corner of history. The
psychic angle of the investigation is far more real and plausible
than the standard psychic investigations of TV series…This is a
story that does everything right.”

READ

The
Saltimbanques"FOR
DANNY TRUSWELL, HIS WORLD CHANGED FOREVER
that day in 1962 exactly one week before he turned
fourteen, a hot dusty day in Reardon, one of those
blistering Australian summer days just after
Christmas..."Read
the full story...

Stitch
"Soon Bella
would find the nerve to go upstairs. Soon she would
be able to excuse herself from her uncle and aunt
and climb the familiar old stairs, counting every
one, enter the toilet in the alcove of the upstairs
bathroom, and confront Mr Stitch..."Read
the full story...

READ

The
Man Who Lost Red"ERIC DID
WHAT THE MEDIC SAID. He did go to the top of
Carlieu. It was a good half hour’s climb in the wind
and the bright sunlight, and not once did he turn
from climbing to discover the truth..."Read
the full story...

Nobody's Fool"WORMWOOD WAS BROUGHT TO EARTH a
little after midday on 4 June 2023. It came through the sky
down a magnetic funnel, held and handled by a dozen Nobodoi
‘ships’. That was the only time we ever saw Nobodoi ‘ships’—straits
they were later called..."Read
the full story...